after a long dark night
by Federtanz
Summary: Absolutely shameless Nic whump because I can. Featuring a cell, Worick, Alex, bad guys and Celebrer withdrawal.


**A/N:** First Gangsta and first english story (not my first language) so tell me what you think!

"Last chance: You tell us everything we want to know about your so-called friends and we're allowing you to live, Tag."

Nic snarled at them. The ring-leader took a step back, shrugging, and pulled five syringes out of a pant pocket. He thrust them under Nic's nose. "You know what this is, right?" Alex saw Nic's eyes narrowing and something like fear flickering in them. "Still not in the mood to talk?"

The resolve on Nic's face was stony and absolute. He slowly shook his head. Alex heard Worick suck in a breath. "Don't be stupid, you little punk", he mumbled. "Just give him what he wants, it's not worth it." Nic's attention was fixed on the tall scarred man twisting off the cap of the first syringe, no way he would have been able to read Worick's lips.

The ring-leader stepped forward with a bloodthirsty smile on his face. Waving the syringe through the air. Alex could see every single muscle in Nic's body tensing, instinctively recoiling. The ring-leader punched the dark-haired Twilight in the gut, hard enough to make the radiator he was chained to rattle with the force of it. His other hand swiftly emptied the syringe in Nic's shoulder.

Nic was coughing and staring up at the man with unadulterated hatred. Laughing, the ring-leader took the next syringe, then hit him again.

Beating. Injection. Nic spitting out a mouthful of blood derisively. Another hit. Next syringe.

Finally, all five doses of downers were injected and the guy stepped back to admire his handiwork. There were some bruises on Nic's face and neck, but he stared back angrily. "Now we give it time to work. Even if you won't talk, maybe your suffering will make your friends more... what's the word? Amenable to our demands."

Alex was already fighting to hold back her tears. To see someone she almost called a friend beaten in front of her, unable to help, was horrible. Worick's face was etched in granite, all emotion locked up behind an expressionless mask. His fists were balled and he didn't take his eye off Nicolas for even a second.

A few minutes passed without anything happening. Then Nic's eyes went wide.

Alex could tell that the drugs had hit all of his bloodstream by now. The Twilight started trembling uncontrollably, teeth gritted in order to not give the ring-leader the satisfaction of making a sound. Even when Nic was practically convulsing from his body's violent reaction to the downers, he didn't cry out. Judging by the sweat on his face and how he had bitten his lip hard enough for blood to run down his chin steadily, he had to be in a fair amount of pain.

The ring-leader suddenly stood so close to Nic he was only inches away from his face. He pulled out something from his jacket and shook it in front of Nic's face.

The lines of pain etched around the Twilight's dark eyes deepened. Nic let out an involuntary harsh gasp as a particularly nasty convulsion ran through him.

The ring-leader moved a bit to the side. Alex gasped as she recognized the orange pill container. Celebre-uppers. "You're not in a fatal state yet. Tell me what I want to know and I might save you from a agonizing slow death. I could save you. Or I'll put you out of your misery myself."

Nic's eyes were tracing the man's lips. He drew himself up a bit straighter and bared his bloody teeth at him. "Guess that's a no, then. Well, can't have you dying a messy death in my best interrogation room." He turned. "Rob, get that Tag scum and his little friends in one of the holding cells. Oh, and give the woman a blanket or something, she's quite a looker, maybe I want her alive as my bounty later."

* * *

As soon as the door slammed shut behind Alex, Worick was already kneeling at Nic's side. "Stupid, stupid, fucking stupid bastard! What did you think? Were you even thinking?"His voice was shaking, not that it mattered to Nic. "I told you you would die on my terms, remember?"

The blond man rubbed a hand over his face wearily. Alex started. _Dying on my terms?_

Nic turned his head a bit to have a better look at his partner. [Who says I'm dying?] His hands were shaking, wrists rubbed raw from pulling on his handcuffs. A choked half-sob, half-cough from Worick. "Who are you trying to convince? I saw the dose he gave you, you little fucker. Not even you can survive this."

Nic lifted his hand to sign when another convulsion hit. This one was far worse and had him curled up, gasping for breath, some grunts of pain escaping behind clenched teeth. After what felt like an eternity, Nic's breathing eased up somewhat and far too tense muscles relaxed a bit. Worick, who had been holding on to the Twilight's shoulders, sat back with a sigh.

Rolling on his back and glancing up at his partner, Nic had a determined look on his face and started signing. His hands didn't obey him fully and the usually graceful and natural movements were stunted and clumsy.

[Stop whining. 'S better this way than wasting away in some hospital bed. I always hoped someone would do me in in battle but whatever.] "I'll give you whatever! How can you even say that!"

[Getting in my face and shouting doesn't change anything. Save it for those who can actually hear it, moron.] The weak grin on Nic's face sent Worick into a trembling rage and Alex decided to intervene before he started shouting again. They seemed to have completely forgotten about her. "Ah, Worick? Is there anything I can do to help?" Scratching underneath his eye-patch, Worick shook his head.

"It's useless. As much as I hate to say it, he probably only has hours left." His gaze went back to Nick, who had gone to quietly panting in pain, eyes squeezed shut. "Hours?" Alex suddenly found it hard to speak around the lump in her throat.

Worick looked old and tired. "Celebrer withdrawal. They have mixed in something with the downers they used to get him to a neutral state, some sort of other drug to speed up the withdrawal. Symptoms include nausea, hemorrhages, convulsions, hypothermia, hallucinations, labored breathing, irregularities in cardiopulmonary activity and ultimately, organ failure and death." Alex gulped, unable to think of something to say. Having read the scrapbook full of newspaper articles on Twilights, all of that sounded horribly familiar. _Nicolas..._

The dark-haired Tag chose that moment to lurch upright with a groan of pain and start dry-heaving. Worick was at his side in an instant, holding him when Nic hacked up the meager contents of his stomach, then some bright red blood and slime. Worick settled his partner back on the floor and hunted for a handkerchief in his pockets. Finally finding it, he gently wiped the blood and grime off Nic's face. The Twilight only raised an eyebrow, too spent to move.

For some minutes, Nic was quietly lying on the floor, completely limp except for the rise and fall of his chest. Worick was dragging his hands through his hair. Alex didn't dare to approach the two benriya, Worick was looking far to spaced-out and too close to a breakdown. She absentmindedly noticed that her foot had fallen asleep and only now realized that there were tears running down her cheeks. The woman lifted a hand on auto-pilot and wiped her eyes.

Worick rested his head on his bent knees and hid his face behind his hands. Nic smacked his shins with one hand until the blond looked up. Ignoring the tremors still wrecking his signing, Nic moved his hands slowly, all the while looking Worick straight in the eyes. [Stop losing whatever sanity you probably never had to begin with. Don't sit here moping, put that annoying brain of yours to work and find a way to get Alex out of here.]

Worick looked in her direction at that, a guilty look crossing his face. Nicolas slammed his hand into Worick's knee this time. [Eyes on me, dumbass. It was a good time. I don't mind it ending this way.]

There was so much more in Nic's dark eyes than the words he used. _Thank you. You saved me and I could never repay you for that._ Visibly pulling himself together, Worick nodded.

[Sorry for not carrying out that order.] Nic looked away and Alex clasped her hands in front of her mouth. Order? " _I told you you would die on my terms, remember?"_

Worick didn't react to that and they fell in an uneasy silence that was broken by Nic writhing in pain for several minutes, then stilling again.

* * *

Alex had barely noticed the cold seeping into her bones until Nic started shivering so bad his teeth were chattering. Worick looked at her for the first time since quite a while. "You seeing any blanket or something warm, Al-chan?"

Indeed, in a corner of the small cell was a lump of fabric that might have once been a duvet. She retrieved it and watched Worick wrap the dirty thing around Nic's shoulders. Nic was only vaguely conscious after a particularly bad episode, his hoarse screams still ringing in Alex' ears. That damned helplessness was the worst thing.

Watching Nic trash and howl in pain as his body ripped itself apart and knowing she could do absolutely nothing.

It must be astronomically worse for Worick since he had known and lived with Nicolas for twenty years. She didn't know how those two had met but it was obvious that the deaf Twilight was Worick's only real friend. She hated that damn ring-leader with a passion and depth she'd thought herself incapable of before Barry.

Nicolas stirred with a moan and blinked his way back to reality. When his eyes finally focused on Worick, the blond man forced a smile on his face. "You look like shit." Nic snorted and let his head fall back onto the floor. There was blessed peace for far too short.

Worick tensed a split second before Nic was doubled over, pressing both hands to his middle and looking more alarmed than Alex had ever seen him. "Shit", Worick stated. Alex watched in horror as Nic threw up thick, vicious looking blood, still clutching his stomach with bruising force.

When he was done for the moment and curled up miserably on the floor, breathing labored, Worick forced his partner to roll over onto his back and started prodding at Nic's abdomen. The sides got him sharp glances and pained hisses but when he neared the area that seemed to give Nic all the trouble, the Twilight flinched and jerked away from Worick's hands.

Worick glowered and pressed down one hand on Nic's chest to hold him down. Alex looked away at Nic's snarl followed by a shout of pain. Worick continued examining, ignoring his best friend's helpless whimpers. When he was finally done, he rubbed Nic's tense shoulders in comforting circles, trying to get him to relax at least a bit before his muscles would completely lock up.

Nicolas seemed to get the pain under control again, still panting harshly but also scowling at Worick. "Internal bleeding", the blond man stated morosely.

[I felt that well enough without your help, you know.] Nic's signing was slow, shaky and lacking the usual fluidity but he was still alert and sarcastic, which could only be positive.

* * *

The night was passing far to slowly. It was like time had morphed into thick slime Alex was fighting through. The only way to measure the passing minutes was by the harsh whimpers Nicolas was unconsciously making and the fewer pain-free moments in between.

At some point it had gotten damn cold in their prison and Worick had shifted into position behind Nicolas underneath the blanket, then motioned at Alex to join them. Now she was curled up to Worick's broad back, clearly feeling his muscles tense every time he held Nic down when he instinctively tried to curl up around his hurting middle. Dim light, probably originating from neon lights somewhere outside the solitary barred window, lit their cell enough to make out the walls clear enough to count the bricks.

Alex felt Nic stir. She shuffled around until she could see Worick's profile and Nic's sweat-soaked mop of hair. The Twilight looked up, blinking rapidly. He shook his head slightly, as if to clear it, more blinking, then a look too close to panic crossed his face. Worick snapped into action, gripping Nic's shoulders and leaning in close. "What's wrong, Nic?", he asked, signing along as he spoke.

Trembling and breathing far too fast, Nic chopped short signs into the air. [Vision's blurry.] Alex sucked in a sharp breath. She could only guess how much the deaf man normally depended on his eyes. Losing his sight would mean almost complete sensory deprivation and would leave him without any means to communicate.

"Nicolas!", even though it wouldn't have any effect whatsoever, Worick still barked out his partner's name loud enough to make Alex flinch. Realizing his mistake, Worick leaned in even closer and talked slowly, hands weaving through precise motions simultaneously. "You have to calm down, panicking won't help. I'm sure your blurry vision isn't permanent. Close your eyes and trust me."

Nic looked defeated, but obeyed. Alex noticed that he had really thick eyelashes and how different his face looked in the dim light once he closed his eyes. Softer somehow.

It almost seemed as if he could actually get a few moments of rest.

* * *

The night had to be well past its middle, when Nic's condition got even worse. Alex had thanked every deity she knew the name of when Nic's vision was almost back to normal by the time he was jerked from relative peace by another round of puking up almost congealed blood. He was exhausted well past his limits by now and quietly wheezing through most cramps and convulsions by now, too tired to move between and even during the attacks.

Worick had wrapped his arms around the shorter man, both as a comfort and to prevent him from worsening the internal injuries from moving around too much.

Without any warning, Nic tensed up and desperately tried to breathe past suddenly obstructed airways. Shuddering with the strain he managed to draw in half a painful-sounding breath, then started coughing. The coughs were wracking Nic's body badly enough for Alex to feel the jerks through Worick's back. The blond man was uttering an inventive stream of curses when he noticed the blood Nic hacked up dripping from his lips.

When the coughing fit finally passed and the dark-haired Twilight was gulping down air like he was drowning, Alex couldn't help the horrible thought that Nic would be dead before the morning. To make it even worse, before Nic had had a chance to even out his breathing, he was hit with some sort of spasm bad enough to make him twist out of Worick's grip.

Still stronger than the average human, Nic doubled over despite the broader man's hands, breath hitching in his throat. Pure animal fear flashed over his features, his hands clawing at his chest directly over his heart. Worick was shouting something at her, "hold him down!", and Alex did, moving without conscious thought. She pressed Nicolas' shoulders down, noticing the wrong rhythm of the wild heartbeat underneath her fingertips where she pressed into his skin.

His heart skipped two beats, then stumbled on in fast frantic beats. Worick was straddling Nicolas to keep the panicked Twilight's hips and legs still and now brought down both his fists straight onto Nic's chest.

Nicolas almost bucked both of them off in an instinctive movement as he arched his back. He would have been uncontrollably howling in pain if he had had the air to do it.

The heartbeat Alex felt still wasn't even. Worick was pressing his thumb to Nicolas' wrist and seemed to come to the same conclusion. He straightened up, the drove his elbow into Nic's chest, directly over his heart, his whole body weight behind the blow.

Alex shouted in horror at the unmistakable crack of ribs snapping, Nic's strangled moan breaking her heart. Worick's savage technique seemed to have worked, though. The Twilight's heartbeat was still too fast, but strong and even.

Nic seemed to be quite out of it. Worick and Alex climbed off him, the dark-skinned woman starting to tremble all over as shock set in.

* * *

Nic's heart didn't stop again, thank God, but Alex grimaced at the terrified look on his face every time he started coughing and then choked on the blood coming up. Worick's large hand between his shoulder blades seemed to anchor him somewhat and he leaned into his friend's support, his own shaking body no longer able to hold him up. As Nic had told Worick with short keyword signs, he also wasn't able to move his feet anymore, his nervous system slowly shutting down.

After another round of coughing, pain worsened by the added broken ribs, Nic placed his hand atop of Worick's. Alex was puzzled at first, then saw Nic's index finger tracing letters into Worick's palm. Worick was mumbling the words to himself. "Glad... I am … not … alone..." The blond man's voice broke at that, a few tears running down his rough cheek.

Alex jumped when a key turned in the door behind her. A man, most likely some sort of henchman, came in, pistol in hand. "That Tag still alive? Tough little bastard, gotta give him that." His tone made Alex imagine wrapping her hands around his throat and choking until his eyes went dead.

He waved his gun towards Worick. "Hands off that piece of filth. Three steps back", the man ordered. Worick gave Nic a long look then slowly straightened and backed away. Alex was waved over with the barrel of the gun until they both stood next to each other with their backs to the wall. Nicolas was still curled up on the floor, blood dripping from his mouth, eyes closed, but visibly breathing.

The man stepped up and gave the Twilight an experimental kick to the side. A pained hitch in Nic's rasping breaths, but no other reaction. "Gotta tell the boss that this one's as good as dead." He half turned, keeping Worick and Alex in his line of sight.

What no one expected was Nic's hand wrapping around the man's ankle and tugging hard enough to make him take a nosedive and lose the gun. Worick was on him, trained instincts taking over. The man was unconscious before he had a chance to process what happened.

Nic's arm was limply laying on the floor, a small smile on his face. "Nic, you son of a bitch, you did it!" Worick rushed towards his friend while Alex was still numbly staring at the henchman on the floor. "Alex! Look what's behind that door!"

* * *

Worick had lifted Nic up in a fireman's carry and hurried up the stairs ahead of Alex. Nic was pretty much unconscious, only strangled moans escaping him at the inevitable jostling of being slung over Worick's shoulder. Alex knew what they were looking for: Nicolas' jacket with the emergency Celebrer dose hopefully still inside, an exit and their weapons, in that order.

Worick had breathlessly explained that a dose of the drug could stabilize Nic enough to get him to Dr. Theo in time. Possibly. When Alex darted around a corner and saw the muddy heap of their jackets with the hilt of Nic's katana jutting out, she was so relieved she felt her knees go all wobbly.

Worick dropped Nic to the floor as gently as he could and immediately rummaged through the pockets of Nic's dark green jacket. Alex sobbed aloud when she saw the orange pill container, tiny in Worick's hand. He prodded Nic's cheek, then gave him a slight slap when there was no reaction. Of course, they didn't have an auto-injector or a syringe at hand, Nic had to be awake to swallow the pills.

Worick was cursing loudly. "Don't you dare give up on me fucking now! That's an order!" Despite his vocal protests not being heard his incessant slapping seemed to work, as Nic blinked bleary eyes open and squinted up at Worick.

The blond benriya didn't waste any time and stuffed the pill into Nic's mouth.

* * *

Worick's gamble had actually worked. While the Celebrer upper was screwing Nic's already messed up system into next week, it kept him alive long enough to get him to a frantically cursing Dr. Theo. Escaping from the ring-leader's stronghold was a blur in Alex' mind, there had been shooting and shouting, and Worick draping Nic's arm over his shoulders and dragging the smaller Twilight along with the arm slung around his waist, simultaneously firing his gun.

Then they had stolen a car by shooting in the window, then hot-wiring it and raced to the clinic as if all the hounds of hell were after them. After hours and hours of Theo working to stabilize Nic and operate on his internal injuries, he ordered Alex and Worick in bed and turned off the lights.

* * *

Bright clean morning light filtering across her face woke Alex. For a moment she was content just laying in bed and enjoying the warmth, then the events of the previous night came back. Sitting up a bit to fast, her head spinning, Alex braced her hands on the bed and took a few deep breaths to steady herself.

She swung her legs off the bed, dragged her hands through her messy hair and put on her shoes. Pausing at the bed next to hers, she wondered why Worick hadn't woken her when he left. Shaking her head she went on to where she could hear Dr. Theo's voice.

At a curtained off cot she could make out Worick's and Theo's silhouettes. Not wanting to interrupt, she paused a few feet away and listened. "Just tell me everything, Dr. Theo."

A weary sigh. "Man, I'm glad Nina isn't here. That was messy." A growl from Worick. "Alright, alright. If you had brought him in half an hour later, I couldn't have done anything anymore. I had to give him a transfusion for all the blood he had seeping into his lungs or spilling into his abdominal cavity. Thankfully the actual internal damage is minimal to what could have happened and I fixed all of it. The way he is now, there's only the ribs to worry about, as long as he keeps physical activity to a minimum and doesn't rip any stitches."

Worick let out a relieved sigh and she saw him running a hand through his hair. "And what haven't you told me yet? What's the bad news?"

"Until he wakes up, I have no idea what kind of damage all the chemicals roughing up his system did. I need to run a lot of tests before I can be sure of his actual condition. As far as I can tell with him sedated, all seems to be in working order, but..." The doctor trailed off.

"What's the worst case?", Worick asked grimly.

"I don't need to tell you what that kind of crazy overdose did to his life expectancy. Worst case is him entering Celebrer poisoning prematurely. Also, he could have damaged his heart beyond repair. I don't dare to put more stress on him and check."

"So, essentially, you fixed up the holes but don't know how much the Celebrer affected him."

Theo nodded. "I only gave him enough to survive earlier this morning. I need to know how badly he's off before I go pumping any more uppers into him. Given his usual dosage, he's already messed up enough, plus I'm not sure what else that bastard gave him. I'm still working on the probe."

Worick sounded tired like he hadn't slept in weeks. "Thank you, Doc. I'll stay here." Theo left into the opposite direction and Alex felt like an intruder when she saw Worick resting his head on Nic's cot and whispering something to quiet for her to hear.

With a last lingering look, she turned and went to search for Theo. Maybe she could help him with something.

* * *

Around midday, Alex followed Theo out of his small lab when they heard Worick shout for the doctor. "He's waking up!" Dr. Theo hissed an expletive under his breath. "That little fucker, I gave him enough sedatives to knock a dwarf like him out until this evening!"

When they arrived at the cot, Worick was holding Nic's hand and the Twilight was blinking. Before anyone could say something, Theo was all over Nicolas with a flashlight, a stethoscope and a wide array of curses. When he backed off a bit to wrap a blood-pressure gauge around his arm, Alex got her first good look at the dark-haired Twilight. Nic was still pale and looked tired but that sure bet his half-dead state of last night. His whole torso was wrapped in bandages and he had an IV attached to his left wrist, but seemed a lot better.

Theo loomed over him, signing along as he rattled through a catalogue of questions, barely giving Nic enough time to nod or shake his head. Worick looked relieved at seeing Nic awake and relatively healthy but warily kept track of the doctor's questions and the Twilight's answers.

"Unbelievable", Theo muttered. "Seems like the lucky bastard came out with barely a scrape." Alex let out a breath she hadn't really remembered holding. Thank God.

"All thanks to your phenomenal healing skills, Doc!", Worick exclaimed cheerfully before Theo had a chance to work up to one of his hissy fits about Nicolas being an ungrateful little git when the Twilight only grinned smugly. Worick and Alex were then ushered out of the way as Theo ran all sorts of tests on Nic.

When he swept off to his lab with all sorts of samples, leaving a disgruntled Nic and beaming Worick, Alex set out to find them some sort of dinner.

As she busied herself in the kitchen she couldn't help but mull over the horrible experience of Nicolas almost dying on them. She had grown fond of him during her time at the benriya's apartment, a place she had secretly started to call home. For the first time since she had entered Ergastulum with Barry, she had felt safe with those two men. Both were undoubtedly strong enough to defend themselves and protect her when it came to that, but they were also accepting her as who she was.

Nic and Worick had both troubled pasts and their own issues so she was welcome there, even though she was broken.

Carrying two plates of noodles Alex stepped up to the hospital bed Worick had taken up residence upon. While Nic was irritably tugging at the IV line, Worick was extravagantly waving his hands through the air as he tried to stress his point. Nic had scooted over a bit to make room for the blond man at the foot of the bed earlier and by now they were bickering as usual.

Worick was chuckling at something Nic had signed and no one would suspect that the Twilight had been a hair's breath away from death last night and his friend almost breaking down over it. A soft smile spread over Alex' face. Somehow they would be okay.


End file.
